1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to information recording medium used by object products that pass through a plurality of processes, and a process management apparatus and a process management system of the object products each using the information recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Process management apparatuses and process tracking apparatuses directed to use information recording media having a communication distance of several meters and capable of simultaneously recognizing dozens of products, such as tags called “RFID tags”, for supply chain management and article management in the fields of physical distribution and merchandising have been proposed in the recent years.
A system disclosed in JP-A-2003-316861 reads product identification information and communication destination address information recorded to an RFID tag attached to a product when the product is inputted to a process of its own, reports input of the product indicated by the product identification information while keeping coordination with identification information of the apparatus of its own, reads the product identification information recorded to the RFID tag attached to the product and the communication destination address information when the product is outputted from the process of its own and reports output of the product indicated by the product identification information while keeping coordination with the identification information of the apparatus of its own. The circulation status of the individual products can be grasped by collecting these reports.